Springtime Cowl and Beanie

The winter of 2019 seems to be just as endless in Chicago Land as last year's - so I thought that my friend Barb might welcome the warmth of a cowl - doubling as a beanie for the really Chicago-windy days - and in the spring color of green, with a few red, blue and yellow beads thrown in for good measure as a stand-in for spring flowers!

 Springtime Cowl and Beanie

The pattern is called: Barb’s Springtime Cowl and Beanie!

First: It is a cowl. Secondly: It is a beanie. Thirdly: You can wear it with the greener part at the top or at the bottom, upside down, inside out. And finally: The I-cord is removable and can be woven through the holes between the stitches either at the top or at the bottom. I crocheted the last two rows and the elastic bind-off to make an even hole-spacing for the I-cord.

 Springtime Cowl and Beanie

 Springtime Cowl and Beanie

After weaving the I-cord through the spaces between the stitches, pull it tight, make a bow and there you go, take a bow! Wear your beanie upside down whichever way you please. Oh yes, lest I forget, if you don't want the I-cord to show you can gather the cowl together at the top with the I-cord, make a bow, turn the cowl - now a beanie - inside out and there you go. How versatile is that!

Springtime Cowl and Beanie - I-Cord

Springtime Cowl and Beanie

Of course there is the option to wear it inside out and upside down, but that is totally up to the wearer-ess. The spiral-like green beads on the one end I bought in Shanghai in 2008. The colourful Rocailles (beads) I bought in Vienna in an incredibly well-stocked bead shop sometime at the beginning of this century. And the various yarns were bought during the past 6 decades of picking up so-called orphan yarns, i.e. where only one or two skeins are left in an orphan basket in yarn stores of every country we visited. Now they are orphans no longer but united in a hopefully useful accessory. They are in the colors of spring flowers. 
So there you go! An international Barb Beanie and Cowl!

 

Succulent - not a cowl or beanie, but green!

Do you prefer cake ?

Kindling your imagination: A small road in the countryside - leading your vision beyond the horizon.

Countryside

Buying yarn has something to do with having a vision. It is an exciting and rewarding experience, mind-stretching and nerve-racking at the same time. One visualizes the existing stash, colors, textures, quantity, suitability... The very probability of actual use takes second place to desire for more. We split our personality into two, one on the outside, giving us as much positive feed as we want, and one on the inside, the reality person, reasoning, weighing the pros and cons of the potential purchase, but also soberly searching for excuses to add to a vast existing stash and so forth.

 Doesn't this wrap's shape and strong neon-line colors set your fantasy in motion?

Then there is the lure of the yarn's presentation! We perceive not just skeins, cones or hard core balls, we visually caress Hankenskeins, and yes! CAKES and donut balls! See these and more in this illustration (Interweave). Various known and unknown gadgets cast their spell on us and our credit card. A Nostepinne (Wickeldorn, Ball Winder)
in various new versions, incredibly easy-to-handle Bamboo Curved Needle Sets for socks, hats and loops, a true must-have for a dedicated sock or cowl knitter... Dream on, knitters and yarn fanatics!

 

This wrap created itself in my hands last winter (2016-2017). The meanderings are the opposite to straight lines, back and forth they rise and fall and add peaks and valleys to the structure. Smaller glossy beads and heart-shaped buttons in green, black and purple will catch the eye when the wrap is worn and thus becoming alive. It is a gift for Hélène, our Parisian family member, and - true to proverbial expectations - a très chique and beautiful Parisienne, wearing the wrap with great aplomb (Glitzy freeform wrap / scarf for Hélène)

Northern Lights / Aurora Borealis

Photographs copyright Valerie Mader + Ute Mader

Laden with Texture and Color

All colors are my favorite. Is the singular of favorite correct grammatically, visually, perceptively, sensitively? Hard to decide, but the essence of all colors certainly is. I've been gathering yarn for decades, like this lovely Austermann Fancy Mix bought many years ago. 

Count the colors !

The first Breeze wrap I made I gave to a dear friend in France, using some of my many socalled orphan yarns (only one skein available for purchase) but Jane Thornley's Breeze pattern is so versatile that I could not resist drawing on the Breeze system again, this time using my long-treasured Austermann Fancy Mix. I combined it with some dramatic black and a golden cord I bought at the Berlin Textile Art exhibition last week  - adding volume, glamor and ritzy chic. After all, this is a gift for a special lady who is a goldsmith. What a wonderful and truly precious profession!

Golden Wrap

This time I wove a golden cord - twinned with a smooth black leather thread - through the smaller CO-edge as a draw-string. Gathered into undulating waves, it turns into a lovely shoulder-hugging cowl, framing the neck in precious colors like in a Klimt painting, or Egon Schiele's Crescent of Houses (1915, Der Häuserbogen II, Leopold Museum, Vienna).
Please see the wrap "Winter Breeze" posted earlier in this blog to get an idea of the shape (triangular) and size (always depending on the person who will receive the wrap).

Please visit ARTSY if you wish to know more about  Egon Schiele or Gustav Klimt. ARTSY is an association with the mission to make works of art available for viewing and buying on the Internet.

 Egon Schiele: Crescent of Houses

Happiness is the sum of many small things

Texture plus color are difficult to describe - that is why it is a haptic and visual sensation at once. It is easy to equal such sensations to those being in a garden with a bounty of bright flowers in summer and muted ones in winter. Since I moved to Berlin, I came to appreciate even more Peter Joseph Lenné's astounding capabilities as a garden designer and architect, a master landscaper.

Sanssouci - castle and vineyards

Amonst many prestigeous positions he was a founding member of the Prussian Society for the Promotion of Horticulture in 1822, and accepted the position of Manager of the Parks Division and the Orchard Cultivation. What is so utterly amazing is the fact that he, with no help of airplanes or hot-air balloons, was able to visualize an overall parc concept, incorporating many lakes, the river Havel, a number of existing castles such as Sanssouci (the above picture is by museumsportal-berlin.de) in Potsdam, and castles to be yet designed and built. The overall concept included the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) - the ensemble part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin (UNESCO World Heritage Site). Truly a man with a lot of foresight, patience, know-how, experience, vision and imagination, such as all great gardeners must possess.

Infinity Expressed in Colors

Color me ... and I can see...
"Studies have shown that we can see about 1000 levels of light-dark, 100 levels of red-green, and 100 levels of yellow-blue for a single viewing condition in a laboratory. This means that  the total number of colors we can see is about 1000 x 100 x 100 = 10,000,000  (10 million). A computer displays about 16.8 million colors to display an image". This is from answers.com but even more interesting is the question of how many colors are there and the reply is "infinite" - not very scientific, I suppose, but I'd like to believe it, it is somehow easier to joyfully imagine than most infinities in our lives.


September started with a few nasty days, single-digit temperatures and chilly winds. Then, as if to remind us of those Indian summer days we seem to remember so well, the sun was shining brightly again, being outside the call of the day, a light breeze fanning the surroundings, making blossoms swaying on their long stems, giving visiting bees the ride of their life! Won't you join me for breakfast ...

A friend will be visiting next week and in tune with striking fall colors I made a fall'in leaves cowl for her to wear in Berlin, not known for the best of climates. The Canadian Maple already put on its autumn coat of many colors - for the picture I threw the cowl up into the air and it landed safely on a branch with select matching colors, as if it knew where to settle most decoratively.

  

Maple morphing with Fall'in Leaves Cowl

 

Cast on 50 with bulky yarn and large needle size, knit in the round, 1 knit row and 1 purl row, three times, then add splash of color with yo twice before every knit stitch, next round let those yo drop and knit all non-yo stitches, next row return to 1 knit row and 1 purl row, three times, cast off with elasticity matching the cast-on. If you like Country Music, here's the song of the Coat of Many Colors, sung by Dolly Parton.

After I had finished the cowl I came across a very similar stitch pattern, so if you wish to buy one of Abi's most beautiful cowls she sells them at Etsy and here is the Ravelry link for Abi's Drop Stitch Cowl.

Blown by the wind...

Today, first day of September, there is already an autumn tune in the air, literally: the breeze from the Atlantic is briskly whistling, taking the first leaves off the trees, whirling them up before letting them gently settle in a protected corner, a gathering place until they are revisited by yet a stronger breeze. It appears as if the steady wind was driving the crop across the fields, creating undulating waves of golden green, moving through the valleys and beyond towards the horizon.

In October 1965, when I arrived in Chicago on a glorious fall sunshine morning, I learned within days why the Second City was also called Windy City. Those winds were strong, forceful and freezingly cold in those long and harsh Midwest winters, while most of the time they very welcome in the humid heat of the summer, refreshing one's spirits. Wind is a magician, creating beautiful patterns on land and sea and we all love the tiny ripplings on the shimmering surface of lakes or mighty foam-crested waves at a shoreline created by wind.

For some time now, I've been looking for a project suitable for the iridescent 70% cotton/30% polyamide yarn Cambio (Lana Grossa) I had bought a long time ago. I came across this beautiful Sakasama Jacket, designed by Ravelry designer OlgaJazzy.
Although the yarn used in Olga's original is totally different I thought I'd give it a try. The Cambio is a bit slick and slippery when being knit and the drop will be different. But then, maybe this is just a test run?
I like the shiny green and purple combination and am hoping that I won't run out of yarn before the BO!

The green and purple of the Cambio yarn picks up the light and uses it to assume subtle color variations - while the dewy sheen on the leaves quickly turns into a brighter green when touched lightly.

When it rains, the shimmering blue of raindrops falling from a dark sky simply adds more beauty and allows the leaves to reflect their environment over and over again, in every dew drop, each a magnifying glass for the ambient universe. And if you miss the sound of rain and happen to have an hour off, here is rain, rain, rain... You might also appreciate this Sound of Rain - by Led Zeppelin.

In time for fall, the Noro cowl AYA is finished and ready to snugly protect against chills. If you are curious about the name, check out this explanation on Wiki.

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."

Joseph Chilton Pearce

Smiling Yarns...

Sometimes yarns are just so tempting that all previously started projects are instantly pushed to the "hibernating" stash, and good riddance to them until I have worked out, played about and tried out several ideas with that precious new yarn by Noro! (Also see the last post) 

 

 Aya - smiling 

Multicolor yarn AYA

Aya by Noro is such a yarn. One could fall in love with it, at least if one is a pair of sleek knitting needles or a shimmering wooden crochet hook... The name "Aya" sounded so lovely, too. So this is what it all means, according to Wikipedia:

 "Aya is a female name with multiple meanings in different languages. Aya (あや, アヤ) is a common female Japanese given name. Meaning "Design" "Art" or "Beautiful" Aya is also an Arabic female name written as آية meaning "sign", "miracle", or "verse." A'ya is also in use in the Hebrew language and means "to fly swiftly." or "Bird". In Old German Aya Means "Sword".
There are several alternative spellings including Ayah and Aiya.
There is also an African Adinkra symbol called an Aya which is a fern, it is a symbol of endurance and resourcefulness.
In the Raute language of Nepal, Aya refers to one's sister-in-law, meaning the wife of one's elder or younger brother. The word's origin comes from Proto-Tibeto-Burman ’ay (alternate form yay) meaning mother http://stedt.berkeley.edu/~stedt-cgi/rootcanal.pl/etymon/6134."

Doesn't this tie in nicely and quite unexpectantly with the name of this blog?

Crocosmia Montbretia Lucifer

Call me nostalgic...

but occasionally, I love listening to songs that send my memory on a long trip back to when we were flower-children-young and thought we could save the world and make it better for our children. Did we? I wonder.

Today my young friend Lara posted a link to Annie's Song by John Denver and although his music is probably no longer very popular today, I still carry a candle for this singer and his song-writing and singing talent. He was a master of evoking nostalgic feelings and mind frames.

These days everything is "vintage" if not at least retro. Since I am definitely vintage age-wise, I suppose my present-day projects are already vintage, I am knitting or crocheting current oxymorons, so to speak. This wrap shawl blanket capelet or whatever it will become is leading-edge vintage proof! I am using different sized hooks, a variety of crochet stitches and knitted rows, some knotting, and heaping in stash yarns and some beads, all in the color range from white to light beige, with a hint of gentle pastel colors if they happen to suddenly sneak out from the skeins as they unwind, like zauberballs keeping the knitter or crocheter happy and occasionally in suspense.

I love the looks, feel and lushness of fabric and yarns and the way they compliment each other despite their different structures and provenance - peacefully mixed media of another kind. The wrap  is For Sale (send me an e-mail or go to Ravelry Lauragais).

Closing this post with some more links to wonderful John Denver songs - "Sunshine on my shoulders" and one of my absolute favorites: "Take me Home".

(Click on this link: Many Useful Textile Crafts Tips and scroll to the bottom of the post.)

Ashford Cowl

The weather turned really cold. This carrot-colored Ashford Cowl shared on Ravelry by designer Nicola Faull will certainly help to keep warm! Made for my wonderful friend, Helga.




Adding to the heap of
cowls, here is one more,
also an Ashford Cowl.
Made of beige tussah
silk and ladder tape
yarns in two blue colors.
Festooned the edges
and wrap-stitched
them with transparent
thread while adding
blue seed beads.
The edges are pretty
firm and the top
edge stands up nicely
around the neck.
Knitted for Agnes i.e.
her daughter Sabine.

Whispy Winter White Cowl

Sunday it was snowing and the cowl Vent d'Est Vent d'Ouest got finished right in time. I bound off with the last bit of the Wolle Rödel Mohair, adding a seed bead every five stitches. It drapes nicely, is as soft and light as a feather.
Seed beads are great in adding sparkle to a garment. With this cowl I added the beads one by one with a very thin crochet hook just where I needed them. There are several ways of adding beads. One can use the method of adding pre-strung beads (tutorial). The method of adding beads which have not been pre-strung is easy as well. Slip the bead right into the stitch you are making while it is on the left needle. If you wish the bead to really pop out, knit the stitch into the back of the loop. Here is a great tutorial for this technique in SpinStar's blog